Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

SALT LAKE CITY,
UTAH--Utah's Disability Law Center supports proposed bills in the state
legislature that attempt to make voting more accessible to all voters,
including those with disabilities.

But the agency says the measures need significant changes in order to
make polling places and the voting process fully accessible.

According to Tuesday's Deseret News, the current proposals call for
voters to present, at the time of voting, certain forms of identification that
contain the person's name and photograph. The legislation would also make it
possible for counties to reduce the number of polling places.

DLC advocate Liz McCoy said the state's Protection and Advocacy agency
wants the law rewritten to allow for more types of identification, because many
people with disabilities -- particularly those living in group homes or housed
in nursing facilities or state-run institutions -- may not have access to the
ID required under the proposal.

McCoy said DLC is also pushing for language in the bills to, among other
things, require voting places to be closer together and nearer to accessible
public transportation stops.

"If you read (the legislation) as it's written, a county could allow one
polling place per county, which we feel would be detrimental to voters --
especially those in rural counties and those with disabilities who might not
own a car and where there is not sufficient public transportation," McCoy said.

The bills' author, state Representative Douglas C. Aagard, told the
Deseret News he is open to working with the advocacy group to address their
concerns.

"If it's feasible and it makes sense, we'll look at doing it," he said.
"The whole thing is to get it out to the voters. We're coming leaps and bounds
from where we were as far as helping the disabled."

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.